Canyon boys hoops wins host tournament

Cowboys win Canyon Classic for second straight season

Canyon's Marc Cabrera tries to pass a St. Genevieve defender for a layup during Friday night's game at Canyon High.

The Canyon Cowboys boys basketball team enjoys playing on its home court, especially when the stage is its annual Canyon Classic tournament.

For the second straight season (and the third time in four seasons) Canyon won its host event, this time beating St. Genevieve of Panorama City 66-48 in the final.

That wasn’t the only familiar storyline on Friday, as Canyon senior guard Marc Cabrera repeated as the tournament MVP. Cabrera finished Friday’s game with 10 points, six assists and seven rebounds.

The award is generally given out to the best player on the winning team, but perhaps this tournament was more about how dominant the Cowboys team has been than anything else.

“Honestly, these guys are playing with a very clear focus and purpose right now,” said Canyon head coach Sean De Long. “It’s nice to come to practice when your team is clearly putting in the work that this team is.”

The Cowboys (8-1) had grown accustomed to fast starts during this year’s tournament, but that wasn’t the case on Friday against a determined Valiants team.

St. Genevieve (5-4) jumped out to a 16-12 lead after the first quarter, but the Cowboys took over from there.

Leading the way for Canyon was forward Dean Hendrix-Davis, who scored a game-high 17 points. Hendrix-Davis was voted to the all-tournament team, along with teammate Marc Bell (who hit at least two 3-point shots in every game of the tournament) and St. Genevieve players Christian Caldozo and Joshua Fuglsang.

The tournament may have lacked the firepower that past Canyon Classics have, but according to De Long that doesn’t mean as much considering that the Cowboys are headed to a Ventura Tournament that has a strong reputation on Dec. 23.

“We were just in a great tournament last weekend, it was obviously easier to get up for those teams because of their level,” De Long said. “Maybe the well-knowns didn’t show up this year, but it was a good test of our determination.”

Also playing in the Canyon Classic were Trinity Classical Academy and the Santa Clarita Christian School.